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In 2024, we have an extra day to investigate the extraordinary amounts of pandemic fraud that occurred since our last leap year in 2020.
With lowered guardrails across pandemic relief programs, many individuals took the opportunity to leap into fraud schemes. Here are some that were a little “extra” in the lengths they went to steal from taxpayers.
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Six more take the leap
Six Texas men were sentenced for their roles in a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud ring in which they attempted to obtain over $20 million in relief money. They join 10 other members of the ring who have already been sentenced in previous months, including the ringleader who was sentenced to 15 years.
The scheme centered around submitting fake and fraudulent loan applications by inflating payroll and employee counts. They also wrote checks made out to fake employees from companies that received the loans, and then cashed them at cash checking businesses—one of which was owned by a co-conspirator.
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An extra helping of fraud
You may remember the 'Feeding Our Future' fraud case out of Minneapolis that we highlighted in our 'Scam and Eggs' Fraud Feature. This case has seen at least 57 individuals charged in a $250 million fraud scheme in
which the defendants allegedly funneled pandemic funds—meant to feed kids—into shell companies to enrich themselves.
Earlier this month, 10 more individuals were charged for their potential roles in the conspiracy. One individual allegedly opened several food sites and enrolled them in the Feeding Our Future program, using the names of family members to conceal her involvement.
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Leaping from one scam to the next
A man has pleaded guilty to a host of crimes over the last six months, including a September 2023 guilty plea for defrauding both PPP and the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program of more than $451,000 for personal gains. At the time of his arrest, he was a convicted felon illegally possessing 12 firearms and ammunition. He most recently
pleaded guilty for his role in a multimillion-dollar medical equipment kickback scheme in which he and his co-conspirators obtained doctors' orders for unneeded medical equipment and provided them to the medical equipment companies in exchange for kickbacks—ultimately defrauding Medicare of over $11 million.
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Extra evidence left behind
An individual was sentenced to 79 months and ordered to pay over $3.2 million in restitution for her role in an aggravated identity theft scheme that attempted to secure $16 million in unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.
She and her co-conspirator left behind approximately 747 pieces of mail from the New York State Department of Labor (NYS DOL) in a hotel room. The mail contained prepaid debit cards for individuals linked to 568 UI accounts. They also exchanged numerous text messages that included stolen personal identifying information, such as Social Security Numbers and dates of birth, which was used to file for the UI claims. Finally, she recruited some extra help in the form of U.S. Postal Service workers that helped intercept NYS DOL mail directed to addresses on their postal routes in exchange for bribes. The postal workers were charged for their roles in August of 2022.
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🔊 Extra, extra, read all about it! 🔊
New Scam Alert - Imposters posing as law enforcement officers are
texting individuals claiming that they are being charged with pandemic
relief fraud. The texts may include fake court documents and/or images
of fake correspondence from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General (FDIC OIG) or FDIC Legal Division, asking
for "preemptive bail" payments. We urge you not to leap into
the fraudsters’ web.
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Disclaimer: An indictment is a formal accusation of a serious crime. However, all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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